1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to a selective adsorption process and, in particular relates to a hypersorption process of improved efficiency.
2. Brief Statement of the Prior Art
The hypersorption process comprises contacting of a gaseous mixture of two or more gas components with a compact, moving bed of particulate adsorbent having a preferential adsorbency for one or more of the components of the gaseous mixture. The rich adsorbate from this contacting can be thermally desorbed by contact with a heating fluid such as steam or heated recycle rich product, and the rich product desorbed therefrom is recovered from the process. The commercial installations of which I am aware have employed steam as the heating fluid for this thermal desorbtion, however, in my prior U.S. Pat. No. 2,616,521, I disclosed that a portion of the rich gas product can be heated and recycled to contact the rich adsorbate as the heating gas in the thermal desorbtion zone.
The thermal desorption of the rich adsorbate is only partially effective; only about half of the adsorbed gaseous component can be desorbed in practice and the adsorbent returned to the fractionation zone, therefore, has an undesirably high content of adsorbed gaseous components, reducing the efficiency of the process.